Today, the Supreme Court of Canada granted leave to appeal in Vice Media Canada Inc and Ben Makuch v. Canada. The Supreme Court will be asked to review the balancing between the rights to gather, disseminate and receive news and the interests of the state in prosecuting crime, when police seek access to a journalist’s work product. The decision will shape not only whether and how our law protects communications between journalists and their sources and other journalistic work products, but also how it protects the role of media in free and democratic societies, specifically in providing Canadians with independent and informed reporting on issues of public importance.

Vice and Makuch are to be represented on the appeal by the St. Lawrence Barristers team, with co-counsel, Iain MacKinnon.